NASHVILLE – Repubican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, the Senate speaker, said Thursday he doesn’t expect the GOP-controlled chamber to go along with Democrats’ demands to extend federally funded unemployment benefits for thousands of longtime jobless Tennesseans another 20 weeks.
Ramsey said there have been “conflicting reports” over costs for state and local governments.
But he also acknowledged “the bottom line is, I think, some of them [Republican colleagues] have a philosphical problem with extending these benefits for what would now be two years.
“So I don’t think you’ll see it getting out of Senate Finance,” Ramsey said, later noting federal officials have extended the program twice.
“We’re already now at 79 weeks,” Ramsey said. “This would put it over two years.”